On My Mind; Clinton on The China Road

By A. M. ROSENTHAL

Published: May 14, 1996

On May 10, the Clinton Administration decided to move along in its China policy. It moved from appeasement of the Communists about violations of human rights to appeasement of the Communists about violations of international agreements against spreading nuclear weaponry.

Washington abandoned months of threats that it would impose sanctions on China for selling nuclear weapons material and technology to Pakistan. As dessert for Beijing, Washington approved loans from American tax dollars to the very government-owned Chinese companies that committed the violations.

As it flip-flopped, the Administration treated Congress and the American public like idiots. Straight face hanging out, Washington said that it accepted Beijing's word that it had not known about the sales -- even though the companies are part of the Chinese military system and owned by the Government.

Beijing says it won't do again what it said it had not done -- violate anti-proliferation agreements. Clinton spokesmen say oh, wonderful -- look, we won our point without imposing penalties. The charade is a walkout on the Administration's responsibilities to enforce American law and agreements.

The major dangers of the Clinton decision are three, not yet examined and grasped by public, Congress or press. One is that the structure of anti-proliferation agreements and machinery will fall apart. It will be amusing to hear American diplomats explain to the Russians why they should be penalized for selling nuclear secrets and material to Iran while China gets billions in loans while engaging in the nuclear weaponry trade.

Second: The world will understand that the U.S. cannot be trusted to keep its word to fight proliferation, not if trade is threatened. The third danger is that the American public will turn out to be as stupid, and uncaring about nuclear proliferation, as Washington assumes it will be.

For Republicans, nuclear appeasement should emphasize a critical difference between them and the Democrats, which is election-year gold. That is, if there really was one.

Senator Robert Dole has indeed made some criticism of the Clintonian somersault on the nuclear trade sanctions. I hope Mr. Dole now has some talks, not just with Chinese officials and their American lobbyists, but with fighters against proliferation like Gary Milhollin of the Washington-based Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control.

The Senator will find out from him about deals approved in Washington that will strengthen not peace or freedom but the China National Nuclear Corporation. That's the government company that sold the nuclear technology to Pakistan and is part of the industrial empire that feeds billions of dollars into the Chinese military.

One deal would allow the company's engineers to be trained in advanced reactor technology in the ever-loopy U.S. Another would allow Westinghouse to export steam turbines to the company's nuclear reactors.

Mr. Milhollin can tell him about lots of similar U.S.-China deals. The delightful part for the Chinese and American deal makers is that they do not have to worry about default. The loans are U.S.-guaranteed.

But unfortunately for the American voter's range of choice, the leadership of both parties peddle the same political and ethical monstrosity. That is the idea that trade and chats with the Communists will somehow produce a China that, as Mr. Dole put it, will be peaceful and free and will play by the rules of nonproliferation.

Why the Chinese Politburo and military will encourage freedom and rule by international law, which they have been destroying all these decades, or how they will do it, is not disclosed by either candidate for the Presidency.

This time four years ago, Mr. Clinton was denouncing President Bush's fantasy that trade would persuade the Communist dictatorship to ease its tortures of the Chinese and Tibetan people. After he was elected, Mr. Clinton betrayed his promises, by "delinking" human rights from trade and tariffs. Now he has suddenly delinked the Communists from penalty for nuclear trade double-crossing.

This is tragic for the Chinese and Tibetan people, dangerous for nuclear security and sad for Mr. Clinton's reputation. But I suppose that once you get into appeasement, one thing just follows another.